


tales of the dawnslayer

by izzetboilerworks



Category: Baseball RPF
Genre: Gen, This is an AU, Unbeta'd, and probably could have been like 20000 words, but i stopped it where i did because otherwise it'd be longer than my actual fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-30 03:46:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17216423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izzetboilerworks/pseuds/izzetboilerworks
Summary: They call him the Dawnslayer and the rumors precede him from planet to planet.





	tales of the dawnslayer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saddestboner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saddestboner/gifts).



> This is a little abruptly ended because if I'd keep writing and this would have been an entire novel.

They call him the Dawnslayer and the rumors precede him from planet to planet. In the trusty rustbucket, the SSE Tiger, he cuts a swathe of villainy a mile wide. They tell tales about how formidable he is, how big and looming and terrifying his presence is. He’s a story in the staple of tales to make bad empire children go to bed when they’re misbehaving. 

_”If you don’t go to sleep now the Dawnslayer will snatch you and force you to work on his ship!”_. 

Kate likes the stories, honestly, as it makes it less conspicuous, as she moves throughout the different worlds, making a pretty penny off her smuggled goods and salvaged wrecks. And to be fair, it’s not entirely without truth—she did rig up and destroy one of their Sunships.

With her trusted first mate at her side, they easily slip under the radar as many of those stories leave out several key factors about her personage. 

One, she’s rather slight, honestly. And secondly, she’s rather _feminine_ for them calling her a man. The big gray skinned slug like alien dumps a pile of credits in her outstretched hands. She puts them in her satchel and raises her brows, ducking out of line so her companion can make his penny. 

Afterall, it’s less suspicious if they split the haul up, and get in the line at vastly separate times. She has a date to meet him at one of the stables at the port, and hopefully old Ausmus’s camo would keep the ship concealed for long enough that they get out without consequence. 

Kate spends a few credits at a street vendor who eyes her with distrust and clutches her hand to her chest. Kate supposes she cuts a certain kind of figure. She doesn’t openly wear an allegiance to the Empire, and her blaster—though old—is displayed prominently at her hip. She walks with the swagger of someone who has all of the confidence. 

She thinks about how she’ll need to lay low and she ducks into one of the stables, this one occupied by very few people, and with music piping in that sounds like a Vorellian meditation chant. She orders a drink and sits in a corner by herself, keeping her comm device on the table in case things went upside down. 

Kate sips the drink she ordered with her back to the wall, her eyes scanning the place. A man walks in, with his face covered in expensive silks, dark eyes visible and pale skin but not much else. He’s tall and lanky, flanked by two squat pig nosed guards, both of them emblazoned with the Seal of the Emperor. 

The first man is subtle about it, the patch gleaming in shiny red, dark enough that it’s nearly the color of blood. And the other, a garish tattoo in the same color, cutting across the lines of his face. Kate feels her body tense up and she watches as the bartender moves to serve them, speaking low in an alien language she only speaks a few words of. 

She recognizes _royalty_ and _handsome reward_ and her interest is piqued. She notices there’s vibro-cuffs encircling his wrists, his eyes are sharp though, looking for something. When he tries to fight, the little pig jolts him in the side with a tazer-lance. Kate grimaces. 

It’s not her business. But there’s something almost familiar about the patterning on that silk, something that sparks a memory within her. The man moves quickly, twisting, suddenly, and he gets the demurer pig man in a choke hold, the vibro-cuffs cutting into the thick column of his neck. The vibro-cuffs spark and turn off and the man turns to run. 

The tazer comes out again and hits the main in the back and in the ensuing scuffle, his face covering comes off. Kate doesn’t like to get involved in this, not usually. Politically speaking, it was a death sentence although she supposes she already had one. She pulls her blaster and fires on the bartender, whose been sneaking up behind the familiar man while he’s been distracted on the ground. 

Well, less distracted and more like blitzed from the high power voltage. Both pig men whirl on her and she stabs at her comm. 

“Y’all better hurry, we’re gonna have to go sooner rather than later.” 

She quickly shoots the comm from the pig man’s hand and jumps over the booth to get herself between them. 

Kate doesn’t understand the snarled words at her, but it hardly matters as she tries to disable them enough to get the man to her ship. A shot rings true and one goes down and the other approaches her, lance sparking. Kate frowns as she squeezes the blaster trigger and nothing happens. 

_Damn! Another burnt out power core!_. Kate dodges back and leans down, swiping the other dropped lance and holding it like it’s a bo-staff. She’s not held one of these in many years. She’s clumsy and clunky with it, but lands a lucky enough blow, sparks showering where she hits him in the face, that he drops to the ground howling. 

“We gotta go.” Kate grabs the man at the back of his clothing and tugs him off the floor. He’s wobbly, dark hair a mess, and looking a little worse for the wear. The man stumbles after her as they move through the port and towards her ship. It’s crowded and she curses as she sees an empire barracks ship is in the process of docking. 

“Guys, we gotta go _now_.” Kate hisses into the comm. She ushers Justin towards the hip, dragging him along and forcing him to keep his head down. “Ausmus, open the gate.” 

The rear hatch of the SSE Tiger whirs loudly as it starts to come down. The man, seeming to have recovered from his shock, looks at the ship disdainfully. 

“I’ll die on that thing,” He says with a frown. 

“You’ll for sure die if you don’t,” Kate argues and boosts him up into the half opened ship. She climbs in after him and pushes him deeper into the bowels of the ship. 

“Ausmus, what’s the power levels looking like?” She asks. 

“If Ian doesn’t get back soon, we’re gonna get caught. I’ve diverted as much as I can that still allows us a safe takeoff to keep It running.” Kate moves to the nav seat and her fingers slide along the mechanisms, them lighting up as she diverts more. 

_Nav System Offline_. 

“I can pilot us out of here without it, but it’s not gonna give us much more time.”

Ausmus is studying the stranger, who in the lights of the ship, sudden clarity hits her. 

“You’re Prince Verlander, of Trumbull.” Kate says, surprised. Of course, everyone had heard rumors of how the Trumbull royalty was bankrolling the rebels. And it must be true, if their Prince was being kidnapped by empire ground troops. 

“Yes.” Justin says and he folds his hands into the sleeves of his robes. “And you are?” 

His brow arches and there’s a clang from the hull. 

_”All set boss,”_ Ian’s voice crackles through the comm. Kate starts the takeoff sequence and in the cameras, she can see that empire troops are starting to sniff around. They don’t have time for formal undocking procedures and the ship shakes with effort as the thrusters start to power up. 

She drops the camo and gets all power to their engines. 

“Hit the warp drive.” Kate says. The panel lights up and the stars suddenly go by in a streak, Justin glancing warily at the rivets as they jangle worringly. The jolt sends Justin careening back to the floor and he gives an annoyed huff as he dusts himself off and levers himself into a chair.

“Where are we headed?” Justin asks and Kate frowns. 

“There’s an old…” She trails off as she remembers who she’s speaking to. “There’s a Trumbull warcraft that’s been sighted by some salvagers, I need to get to that before anyone else does.” 

Justin visibly pales and Kate shakes it off. 

“You _will_ take me to Trumbull. It was where I was heading before our ship came under attack. I have an urgent message for my father.” 

“There’s no way I’m taking this through empire patrolled space. Sorry.” Kate says as she sets their course. 

“That’s an _order_.” Justin says more firmly, drawing himself up to his full height. 

“You would have been dead without me, _your highness_.” Kate says. “My crew and our safety is more important than your message, we don’t play politics.” 

Justin’s jaw goes tight and he storms away from the bridge. 

“Some people got an odd way of showing gratitude.”


End file.
